A More Excellent Way

In reading and pondering the "Sermon on the Mount," I was struck by the contrast of the Savior's injunctions on righteous living and the temptations He endured from the hands of Satan.

Following forty days of fasting, Jesus was met by Satan who tempted him saying, "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread" (Matt 4:3). Jesus answered, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (vs. 4). In the next chapter, Jesus teaches, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled" (vs6). Where Satan appealed to corporal appetites that can be sated but never satisfied, Jesus teaches us how to live so that we will always be filled. It starts with a recognition that we are not yet as we will become. If we desire with all our hearts to be who He knows we can become, he will feed us.

Satan issued his second attempt, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.” By throwing himself off the pinnacle of the temple in such a fashion, Jesus would have drawn the admiration of the people but would do so in a way that would put himself at a level above the rest. Salvation is not a ranking. We don’t get to Heaven by being better than someone else. Consider Jesus words on the mount, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt 5:4). Meekness is not weakness. In the words of President Uchtdorf, “We don’t discover [meekness] by thinking less of ourselves; we discover [meekness] by thinking less about ourselves” (October Conference 2010, “meekness substituted for humility”). Meekness is a recognition that we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father. We all have weakness but within us is the seed of deity. We access our potential as we follow the Savior, utilizing his atoning sacrifice in our life.

Satan’s last attempt to lure Christ was to promise him the riches of the world. “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me” (Matt 4:8-9). Contrast that with the words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:3). Being poor in spirit means that we recognize that we are in need of the Savior. As we choose to follow Him and accept his gospel we are promised his spirit. Our poverty is transformed by his wealth. We are promised that “all that [the] Father shall be given unto [us]” (Doctrine & Covenants 84: 38).

After teaching us of hungering after righteousness, of being meek and poor in spirit, Jesus then commands us, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect” (Matt 5: 48). The seeming contradiction is resolved in our ability to do so through accepting his atoning sacrifice in our life. This perfecting process is explained beautifully in the closing words of the Book of Mormon, “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot” (Moroni 10:32-33).

Surely, as the Prophet Moroni explained, “in the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way” (Ether 12: 11).